Big Isle fuel prices set record

Diesel prices in Hawaii hit $4.24 a gallon yesterday, setting a new record.

According to AAA, the statewide average for regular unleaded reached $3.683 a gallon yesterday, just below the all-time high of $3.684 set in September 2005.

Gas in Hawaii has risen about a dime a gallon in the past month and about 69 cents from a year ago.

The Oahu average is $3.565 for regular and $4.096 for diesel.

The average of the Big Island was $3.699 for regular and $4.359 for diesel.

Maui has the highest average in the nation, with $3.963 for regular and $4.369 for diesel.

Nationally, retail gas prices reached a record $3.316 yesterday.

State ranks 10th in city grad rate

The group America's Promise Alliance says Hawaii's public school system had a graduate rate of 64.1 percent for the 2003-04 school year.

Although the island's unique public school system is statewide, the group ranked Hawaii's rate as 10th best among the nation's 50 largest cities.

Mesa, Ariz., topped the list at 77.1 percent, with San Jose, Calif., and Nashville, Tenn., tied for second at 77 percent. Detroit had the worst graduation rate, just 24.9 percent, with Indianapolis next at 30.5 percent.

The 50-city average was 51.8 percent.

Korean War MIAs identified

The remains of two U.S. Army soldiers from the Korean War have been identified by the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Command and will be returned to their families to be buried with full military honors, a Department of Defense news release said.

Capt. Edward B. Scullion of Norfolk, Va. will be buried this summer in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Pfc. Elwood D. Reynolds of Schoolfield, Va. will be buried April 18 in Danville, Va.

Both men were members of A Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, then attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division. The team was fighting the Chinese forces near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea in November, 1950.

Reward offered for swiped laptop

The laptop held a University of Hawaii student's research project and term paper, said Janna Hoehn of Maui, who is offering the reward, no questions asked.

Hoehn said her daughter had been working on the research project since last semester and composed the 20-page paper, which is due this Tuesday, over spring break.

"It's just irreplaceable," Hoehn said. "There's no way to do this over. All the data was on the computer."

The Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook has a Barefoot League decal on it and was in a black nylon computer case behind the seat of a Toyota Tacoma truck. At about 5 p.m., thieves entered the truck through an unlocked passenger door ac and took the computer case, Hoehn said. The case also held an out-of-print UH library book and a 30-gigabyte video iPod.

"I'm not looking to arrest anybody. I just want it returned," Hoehn said. "She (her daughter) is very serious about her education, and she just really needs to get this information back." Anyone with information is asked to call Honolulu police.

Police, Fire, Courts

Star-Bulletin staff

Motorcycle crash kills Maui man

A Lahaina man died early yesterday morning after crashing his motorcycle.

At 1:21 a.m., the man was riding his motorcycle northwest on Waiehu Beach Road when it went onto the makai shoulder at the Ukali Street intersection and hit a guardrail, police said.

The man was pronounced dead at 3:28 a.m. at the Maui Memorial Medical Center. He was not wearing a helmet. It is not yet known whether speed or alcohol were factors in the crash.

The man, whose age and identity have yet to be released, is the sixth traffic fatality on Maui this year, compared with four at the same time last year.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Pickup truck flips, killing passenger

One man died and two were critically injured yesterday in a high-speed chase on the Big Island that ended with a pickup truck flipping, police said.

Thomas Keliinohomoku, 19, of Kailua-Kona was thrown from the bed of the Toyota truck at 12:58 a.m. near the 95-mile marker on Queen Kaahumanu Highway and died at 3:50 a.m. at Kona Community Hospital, police said.

Keliinohomoku was a passenger in a truck that was trying to run another truck off the road after a fight at a Kona gas station, police said.

Keliinohomoku and two men in the Toyota had an altercation with four men in a 2004 Ford pickup truck, police said. The Toyota's driver, a 25-year-old Kailua-Kona man, drove after the Ford and tried to run the it off the road when the Toyota's driver lost control and the vehicle overturned, police said.

All three men in the truck, including two in the truck bed, were ejected. The driver, Liko Asing, was not wearing a seat belt.

Police arrested Asing on suspicion of negligent homicide, negligent injury, operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant, reckless driving and four counts of reckless endangering.

He was flown with the other passenger in the truck to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition.

No one in the other truck was injured.

Pakalolo raid finds plants and pounds

Big Island police charged a 49-year-old Puna man last week after finding 95 marijuana plants and an indoor room to grow marijuana at his home.

Christopher Holt was charged with two counts of commercial promotion of marijuana, two counts of promoting a detrimental drug, one count of promoting a harmful drug and five counts of possessing drug paraphernalia. He was released last week on $13,000 bail.

On March 28, police responded to a 911 call that a man had shot his wife at a Fern Acres property. While looking for the victim, police found Holt and saw marijuana plants growing on the property.

The next day, vice officers armed with a warrant recovered 64 marijuana plants on the back of the property and 31 plants from an indoor grow room. Officers also found 4.98 pounds of dried marijuana, 23.7 grams of hashish oil and 15.4 pounds of "marijuana butter" that tested positive for THC.

On Monday, Holt's wife and the owner of the property where Holt lives turned themselves in to police. They were arrested and released without charges.

All three suspects lived at the address and had marijuana permits, police said. But they said the amount of marijuana at Holt's address exceeded what is allowed under the medical marijuana law.